Opera

Opera refers to a dramatic art form, originating in Italy, in which the emotional content or primary entertainment is conveyed to the audience as much through music, both vocal and instrumental, as it is through the lyrics. From the beginning of the form (about 1600), there has been contention whether the music is paramount, or the words, a theme that Richard Strauss took up in his final opera, Capriccio (1942). Also, dramatic speech in opera is often sung in recitative. By contrast, in musical theatre, dialogue is spoken and an actor's dramatic performance is generally more important than in opera.

Comparable art forms from various parts of the world, many of them quite ancient in origin, exist and are also sometimes called "opera" by analogy, usually prefaced with an adjective indicating the region (for example Chinese opera). However, other than superficial similarities, these other art forms developed independently from and are completely unrelated to opera but are art forms in their own right, not derivatives of opera.

The drama is presented using the primary elements of theatre such as scenery, costumes, and acting. However, the words of the opera, or libretto, are customarily sung rather than spoken. The singers are accompanied by a musical ensemble ranging from a small instrumental ensemble to a full symphonic orchestra.

Besides words and music, opera draws from many other art forms. The visual arts, such as painting, scenery and sculpture, are employed to create the visual spectacle on the stage; in the Baroque "English opera" or Restoration spectacular, visual arts are especially important, even predominant. Finally, dancing is often part of an opera performance, particularly in France. Generally, however, opera is distinguished from other dramatic forms by the importance of song.

Singers and the roles they play are initially classified according to their vocal ranges. Male singers are classified by vocal range as bass, bass-baritone, baritone, tenor and countertenor. Female singers are classified by vocal range as contralto, mezzo-soprano and soprano. Additionally, singers' voices are loosely identified by characteristics other than range,such as timbre or color, vocal quality, agility, power, and tessitura. Thus a soprano may be termed a lyric soprano, coloratura, soubrette, spinto, or dramatic soprano; these terms, although not fully describing a singing voice, associate the singer's voice with the roles most suitable to the singer's vocal characteristics. The German Fach system is an especially organized system of classification. A particular singer's voice may change drastically over his or her lifetime, rarely reaching vocal maturity until the third decade, and sometimes not until middle age.

Traditional opera consists of two modes of singing: recitative, the dialogue and plot-driving passages often sung in a non-melodic style characteristic of opera, and aria, during which the movement of the plot often pauses, with the music becoming more melodic in character and the singer focusing on one or more topics or emotional affects. Short melodic or semi-melodic passages occurring in the midst of what is otherwise recitative are also referred to as arioso. In the late 19th century, many composers abolished much of the distinction between recitative and aria, writing opera that is essentially presented in a restlessly melodic arioso style throughout. All types of singing in opera are accompanied by musical instruments, though until the late 17th century generally, and persisting until even later in some regions, recitative was accompanied by only the continuo group (harpsichord and 'cello or bassoon). During the period 1680 to roughly 1750, when composers often used both methods of recitative accompaniment in the same opera, the continuo-only practice was referred to as "secco" (dry) recitative, while orchestral-accompanied recitative was called "accompagnato" or "stromentato." The complexity of orchestral accompaniment to recitative continually tended to become more complex until, in the late 18th century, composers began to write recitativo obbligato at dramatic junctures of opera seria, in which the orchestra has independent passages of a violent or pathetic character, sometimes reflecting musical motifs or the melodies of important arias.

Some genres of opera use spoken dialogue accompanied or unaccompanied by an orchestra rather than recitative. Such dialogue also is the essential feature of melodrama, in its original 19th century sense. Such melodrama grew partly from the practice that seems to have originated in the 16th century of writing incidental music to stage plays, either those already existing or newly composed. The most familiar example of such to most readers will probably be Mendelssohn's music for A Midsummer Night's Dream; this work is almost certainly the most frequently performed of the genre in a context separate from its accompanying play, and has been transcribed for nearly all imaginable chamber combinations, as well as concert band. The pit orchestra underscoring the dramatic action in 19th century melodrama survives in today's tradition of film scores, and spectacular films incorporating serious music can be considered the direct heirs of melodrama. Perhaps such film scores can in some sense even be considered both the heirs and the competitors of grand opera.